This is the class blog for Eng 1102 at GA Tech called "Fiction, Human Rights, and Social Responsibility." The purpose of this blog is to extend our discussion beyond the classroom and to become aware of human rights issues that exist in the world today and how technology has played a role in either solving or aggravating them. Blogs will be a paragraph long (250 words) and students will contribute once every three weeks according to class number. Entries must be posted by Friday midnight.

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Chemical Samples from Syria on Way to Labs

Teams
from the United Nations are working at a feverish pace to analyze samples taken
from Syria to determine if the allegations regarding the use of chemical
weapons are true. The use of chemical weapons has been considered to be a
violation of basic human rights since World War I, when the Germans used mustard
and chlorine gas with devastating effect. Even the United States have had accusations
of chemical warfare and deleterious side-effects associated with the use of Agent
Orange. Should these allegations prove to be truthful, then Syria would be in
direct violation of the ban put on chemical warfare by the United Nations. At the end of his press conference at United Nation Headquarters in New York, Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon confirmed this by saying that “the use of chemical weapons by anyone under any circumstances would be a serious violation of international law and an outrageous war crime.” To that
effect, Ban called the members of the Security
Council to come together and agree on an appropriate response. However, the
problem is broader than just the events in Syria. The members of the council
need to think about how their response could impact future efforts to maintain
peace before authorizing punitive measures. The use of such force by the United
Nations is not lawful unless it is in self-defense or is approved by the Security
Council. The last of the samples will arrive by tomorrow. The scientists, who
are led by Sweden native Dr Åke Sellström, will then finish analysis to determine
if chemical warfare was involved in the Ghouta area of Damascus. The results
will then be given to the Security Council. However, according to Mr. Ban, the
team only has a mandate to determine if there was or was not any use of
chemical weapons, not who was responsible.

1 comment:

Yes, we know now what the answer is and we have threatened to attack. As I said in another post, I don't know why other diplomatic avenues haven't been explored, like stopping the arms flow from Libya. We will see...